Mexico Tijuana Mission

Month: August 2015

I always think right after an amazing week it will take something crazy to have a week that could be better than the last. HA! But this past week was another amazing one! Being a missionary is fantastic!

I don’t have tons of time to write because we are washing our clothes in a laundromat next door and I took some time writing the Mission President, but I will do the best I can!!

We found another 14 people to teach this week!! Our teaching pool is gigantic, it’s almost like we should stop finding because we don’t have quality time with all of our investigators. We broke 40 lessons again this week and almost baptized one of our families, but they bailed last-minute. We will see what happens this week!

The mission is close to our baptism goal so as a mission we all fasted Tuesday and Wednesday for the baptism dates that we have and…don’t have…. so literally in the same hour that we finished fasting we found an old investigator who the previous Elders dropped because she wasn’t progressing. She was living with her boyfriend and didn’t want to get married. She is very active in the church but couldn’t be baptized until she moved out or got married. So it just so happened that when we passed by her house, after breaking our fast, that we saw her packing her car up and she changed houses! Ha! Miracles! She’s going to get baptized this Friday.

One scripture that we have been sharing this week is in the book of Alma 31-34.

31 Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

I love this a ton! As you guys know we have a goal to baptize ten investigators this month. We have been preaching how TODAY is the day to do it. I love how it says immediately the plan of redemption will be brought about unto you. I have seen that when we choose to serve the lord and accept his gospel NOW, we receive blessings immediately.

Loving TJ! I had a soup yesterday that was called “fishhead soup.” I forgot my camera but it was just the heads of fish. Not the best but cool to tell the family on Monday. My Spanish is great, companions good…just a good time in the mission right now for Elder Woods!

I saw SO many answers this week, easily one of the best weeks of my entire mission.

Elder Guzman and I have been killing it!! We are hitting it so hard here. I always say I have never been more tired, but literally this week I was dying. We worked so hard. It was so hot this week too. I think I’ve sunburned my nose like a million times.

I don’t know if I mentioned anything about this but last week we had an awesome week too, but at the end of the week, we only had two people come to church out of the many people we had found. So we were super bummed afterward. But that night Elder Guzman and I made a promise with each other and the lord that we were going to work and literally do everything that was possible to bring more people to church. EVERYTHING! So we started preaching like nuts! Like literally crazy. Like the town we are in has been talking. I think everyone knows here that there are two Mormons, and they are looking to share a message with you. We found another 11 people this week and invited them to be baptized!! We broke 40 lessons this week too.

So Wednesday was also one of the toughest days in my mission…

As many miracles as we saw, we also saw some pretty bad stuff. Wednesday in particular we got chased out of a few places, yelled out who knows how many times, and we also gave two blessings and healed two baby’s….which I can’t even begin to describe the testimony in that. But the people started seeing all of these crazy things we were doing, and started telling us our power was of the devil! And some crazy stuff happened that day. The point is the adversary knows that we are having success. As we have seen the light in Christ we have also seen the darkness of the adversary. All of it happened Wednesday, but the great thing about the gospel is one prayer of faith can change your whole day. After Wednesday we put our shoulder to the wheel again. Friday there was a stake primary activity and there was a part for missionary work so we brought a bunch of kids with us to do a service project and teach a lesson! So amazing, the people here are great!!

Sunday!! Gameday!! Our work paid off and we brought 10 people to church!! It was a miracle and such a blessing. I know the lord is on our side! We should be baptizing two investigators this week!

I know the gospel blesses families. So grateful for the family and friends I have and how great the gospel of Jesus Christ is.

Hey you guys!!! I hope you all had an awesome week in! Missing you guys like crazy!

After this week I’m positive I’m in the best mission in the entire world!!! Tijuana Mexico is the best!!!Like I said last week I just got changed to the Stake “La Mesa” again and It’s crazy because my companion Elder Ruiz is still in Huertas and Elder Navarrett is in my district!!! WHAT!! Elder Hernadez, my companion, just got moved up as a Zone Leader in Ensenada!!

My new companion, Elder Guzman is the best!!! He is from Chiapas Mexico which is on the border with Guatemala and is super cool. We went and got pizza that first Monday and we were just talking and getting to know each other and we could both tell that we were going to do some damage this transfer!! He is so awesome! He is the District Leader here and we had such an awesome week. We found 13 people this week to teach!! So sweet, and all of them are awesome. There’s a reward in the mission that if a companionship baptizes ten in a month that they get to go to the San Diego Temple or the Temple in Hermosillo Mexico. We set the goal and we’re going to work like crazy and soon, we will be sending pictures to you from outside the Temple!

This week was just work, work, work! It feels like just a blur. I don’t really know the area too well yet. There were four missioneros here but they closed a sector so now there are only the two of us and so the area is huge!! My last area, Miramar prepared me well! Another week in the field of the Lord.

My testimony grows stronger daily and I don’t know how I can be so happy, but so tired at the same time. I feel like I’m starting to make that curve of missing and wanting to be home, to now never wanting to leave the mission. (sorry)

My new area is pretty much the same as TJ usually is; more in-land, not close to the beach, tons of hills, its been pretty hot like normal, dirt roads, shacks, humble families but prepared souls that are ready to be saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Another great week in the service of the lord! Sadly it was the last week in Miramar!! Saturday night the mission made a lot of changes in the mission and told me to pack my bags and head for my new ward! I’m back to the stake LA MESA!!! I’m in the same Stake as Las Huertas again, but this time I’m in a ward called Aguacaliente with Elder Guzman! hahah another Mexicano that doesn’t speak English. I don’t know too much about him but he is the district Leader here and super ambitious. The first thing he told me when we got back to the house was… “Elder Woods, we are going to break records here and save souls.” HA but in a super sweet Spanish accent because he’s from the south part of Mexico and he did it with a ton of spirit. Super excited and we start working tonight!

Last week in Miramar wasn’t too crazy. I didn’t realize how much I loved the ward until they told me I had to leave. Yesterday was rough, tons of goodbyes, especially with Angel and some other investigators but all is well here. We worked hard this last week and set Miramar up to have a ton of success this next transfer.

Something cool happened this morning. After the Mission President tells us all the transfers he always likes to talk to us for a few minutes. These talks are when you grab the bottom of your seat and get ready to go on a spiritual rollercoaster!! It’s just five minutes of pure doctrine getting you amped up to go baptize the world!! What he did was he got really quiet and he asked for a representatives for all of the countries we have in the mission. About eight people went up in front of everyone representing Columbia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Bolivia, United Stats, Paraguay, Uruguay and a few others. After that he waited for a few minutes and everyone was very quiet and he started to cry. He told us the work is going forth and bore a POWERFUL testimony of how the church is true. He told us he was looking at all of the languages that the Book of Mormon has been translated in and he said he was looking at that and he didn’t even recognize like fifty of the languages let alone prounance them all. Then he brought up a missionary fresh out of the MTC from Mexico and asked him what the missionary had heard before his mission about TJ. He said throughout Mexico our mission is known for the mission that is baptizing the most and we are known for baptizing many people!! He then just got us super pumped up and I was like shaking from feeling the spirit so much! It was so awesome.

I love this work and love the gospel. I have fasted and prayed a lot to know if what I’m doing is right and I know for myself that this is the lords church.

What AN AMAZING WEEK!!!! Love being in the mission. Tyson and Brady I can’t wait for you guys to go. This week we had so much success and I know it’s a result of all the hard work we have been putting in here in this sector. I’m so grateful for the gospel and all the blessings I have received because of it. Being a missionary is like nothing else. I can’t put it into words my joy for the gospel and the joy I’m having in my mission. I’m so grateful for my family and the amazing examples they have been to me. This week I felt the strength of having so much support from my family and friends. SO BLESSED!

This is the last week before the transfer ends but we have been doing damage here in Miramar! We brought four people to church yesterday. The couple I told you guys about last week came again! They are going to get baptized pretty soon buuutttt they aren’t married. AHH! But they are awesome. Angel’s doing great and we are teaching his Mom! We found some more awesome people this week so we will see what happens.

I think we walked the most this week than any other week in my mission. I have been sleep talking pretty bad because of how tired I am. I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night teaching lessons and talking to people in the street. HA, that’s when you know your starting to become a missionary. We have been working a lot with the ward and doing some cool activities and stuff! We bumped up the goal for the ward baptisms from two every month to nine. Super big jump but we are going to do it!!

One experience we had yesterday that was pretty amazing is we got a call Saturday night that an elderly women wanted a blessing because she was told that she was going to die. So we went of course as fast as we could with the Elders Quorum Presidente and we walked in her door and literally didn’t say anything more than, “Do you belive Jesus is the Christ and through the priesthood you can be healed?” We then gave her a powerful blessing. We were all crying afterward and she said she felt better!

Last week of the transfer and who knows where I will be next! Hopefully here but wherever the Lord calls me I am ready!